Australians' wealth doubled in seven years: study

Australians are now richer than ever before, new figures showed today, thanks to a buoyant sharemarket and high house prices.

Private wealth rose 18 per cent to a new record high of $5 trillion in the year to June, or $250,000 a head, while debt averaged $19,000 a head.

Stock broker CommSec's analysis of Treasury and Australian Bureau of Statistics data found wealth doubled in the past seven years and rose almost 120 per cent in the past decade, beating the record set in the late 1980s.

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"The gains in wealth over the past decade have not been equalled in at least 40 years," CommSec chief equities analyst Craig James said.

"Rising income and wealth levels combined with historically low interest rates and unemployment near 23-year lows will ensure that consumers keep spending in coming months of record petrol prices."

Mr James said the rise in wealth was due to the sharemarket - which hit successive record highs this week - and house prices, despite a dip in the early part of this year.

Separate figures today indicated the building industry was firing in the June quarter, reaching record highs.

Total building work done rose 0.7 per cent to a high of $12.86 billion and home building was the second-highest on record, pipped only by the period before the introduction of the GST in June 2000.

Renovation activity also hit a fresh high, while the amount of unfinished work on builders' books was also in uncharted territory at $23.7 billion by the end of June.

Treasurer Peter Costello welcomed a 3.5 per cent fall in personal borrowing in August, with lending on credit cards and overdrafts falling 6.5 per cent.

He said the figures, combined with a steadying in retail trade and new car sales, pointed to a slowing in previously heady consumption growth.

"With incomes remaining strong and consumption easing from high levels, it may well be that households are strengthening their balance sheets," he said.

However, crude oil prices reached above $US54 a barrel in New York overnight for the first time, pointing to a further spike in petrol prices at the bowser.

Prices retreated marginally during Asian trade but traders were still nervously monitoring developments in strike-hit Nigeria and recovery efforts in the hurricane-battered Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, an official measure of future employment fell in October for the third month in a row, but the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said it was too early to pick a trend.